Rescue Beauty Lounge (RBL)

Just when the Fan Collection came out, a new one by Ji Baek of Rescue Beauty Lounge is almost ready for pre-order. The theme? The illustrious American painter, Georgia O’Keefe!

Usually Ji’s collections only have a max of four colors. This time around it is a whopping SEVEN (7) polishes. The color craziness is so awesome that I’m going to pack as much into this post as possible. Get comfortable–you’re going to be clicking for awhile.

Bella Donna

It would be insulting not to include white in an homage to Georgia. My challenge was to make a porcelain white or to convey bleached bones in all of its glorious opaqueness without making a streaking mess. This was difficult to achieve and Bella Donna took the longest time to perfect, but I was finally able to produce a self-leveling second coat. I envision luscious blooms of Bella Donna in every hand gesture and blossoming Bella Donna petals beautifully resting on your toes. — Ji Baek

Abiquiu

Clusters of brushed desert plants sway mesmerically with the wind. After a thunderous rain that cleanses off dust and sunburns, Abiquiu captures the moment when that first sunbeam appears and flashes them with a warm kiss. — Ji Baek

Santa Fe Road

I was offered a trip to Santa Fe when I was working on this collection, but turned it down. I wanted to capture the soul of Santa Fe solely through Georgia’s images. This color would be an aerial view of my imaginary Santa Fe—the baked earth tones of ocher with the shimmery, glisteningly ubiquitous dotted greens. — Ji Baek

Oriental Poppy

Finding yourself amongst a sea of poppy fields, you toss your bike aside to lie down for a rest to swallow and inhale the beauty. Lusciously vibrant petals bob their heads up and down with the flirting wind. As a sign of approval, the glorious, piercing golden sunlight casts a spell and what you see is the electrifying vibrancy of a mysterious red with spots of color aglow with the sun. — Ji Baek

Ghost Ranch

This is the magical place that captivated Georgia’s heart—her home. “…the shadows are long and the sun hits brightly on unexpected spots,” she wrote to Stieglitz–taken from Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O’Keeffe by Laurie Lisle. In the twilight, the adobe casts its nebulous glow, and the mistress is on her rooftop wrapped in a Navajo blanket, walking stick in hand as she watches the first appearance of the muted, twinkling stars. – Ji Baek

Jack in the Pulpit

Her Jack in the Pulpit series totaled six pieces. The way Georgia used greens, blues, and especially that bastardized teal, put me in a hypnotic state. When I actually saw the paintings in person, the oil paint brush strokes that mixed the three colors came alive in certain lights. — Ji Baek

I have to say I am extremely impressed at the color palette Ji has come up with as drawn from Georgia O’Keefe’s paintings. While I am far from an art fan, I’ve always loved Georgia’s paintings of flowers. Even without seeing the pantings, I got the impression from the colors Ji came up with that they were truly inspired by Georgia’s iconic work. As a fan of cool colors, my favorites (in no particular order) are Abiquiu, Faraway Nearby and Jack in the Pulpit.

As with the fan collection these polishes will retail for $20 USD each. Pre-order is scheduled for early June but if the date slips a bit please don’t freak out. Make sure you get on over to RescueBeauty.com to sign up for the VIP list if you’re not already on it.

So are you planning on ordering? Of course you are! As you wait to be able to whip out that credit card, be sure to check out the individual shade reviews from the bloggers lucky enough to get a hold of these shades first:

FINALLY, the fan collection nail polishes from Rescue Beauty Lounge are available for pre-order!

The gorgeous polishes concieved by die-hard RBL, brought to life by Ji Baek

Late last year when I had just gotten into RBL, I was able to vote for two polishes. Both of them made it into the final cut. As for which ones–that can wait. Considering at the time of this writing only about 16 precious hours are left for the pre-orderand if you don’t get them now, you will have to wait until late April.

Have you pre-ordered yet? Or did you miss it? EIther way, let’s look closer at these four fabulous colors so you know what to order and what to get backup bottles of. Please note descriptions and press photos of all shades are credited to the RescueBeauty.com website.

Halcyon (Fan Collection)

Danielle’s dream color is a soft, sage green with a pink glimmer of brilliant reflective shine, just like when the morning dew tenderly kisses a succulent plant. The beauty of succulents keeps her calm and serene.

Halcyon -- Shimmery serene green w/ pink shimmery goodness

Aqua Lily (Fan Collection)

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to visit the Kuda Huraa Island of the Maldives. The turquoise water is a crystal-clear sea green and what really had me spellbound was that it reflected a shimmery-pink hue from the shedding scales of the colorful, vivid, and exotic tropical fish. This color is Kay-Di Kat’s homage to her beloved mom, Lily, an Aquarius who swims like an enchanting mermaid. I imagine Lily swimming in this paradise with its mesmerizing water in the Island of the Maldives

The metamorphic moment when the presence of ammonia meets copper (II) transforms into a radiant blue. Cuprum is Latin for copper, and the dual nature of this element is what Neeta wanted to capture in a bottle.

Cuprum(Cu) - The geek in me saw the chemical symbol for copper first, then the gorgeous color! My 2nd place vote!

Due to an increase in raw materials and Ji’s determination to keep the quality of her polish to the standard we all know and are rabid about, these polishes will retail for $20 USD each. Like a good little RBL, I pre-ordered all four and will review them once I’ve received them in late April/early May. In the meantime, four lucky bloggers got their hands on these polishes and have reviewed them. So while you wait or wonder which ones to buy or are backup-worthy, check out the reviews from Scrangie, All Lacquered Up, Kellie Gonzo and Nails and Noms.

Absolutely jam-packed with uniform glitter in light green, dark green and purple, it’s no wonder Locavore took the top spot in the Rescue Beauty Lounge BIB2 round of voting. The predominance of glittery green appeals to the die-hard Tinker Bell fan in me and I could totally see her rocking this color.

Locavore by Rescue Beauty Lounge. So glittery a tinker fairy would be lemming for it!

The glitter brushes on evenly (no ‘push and place’ as with some other glitter polishes) and you can get a pretty nice opacity in two to three coats. The glitter is very finely milled so when it dries the glitter is barely felt when you touch it. My favorite use of this polish is to put it over either a dark green or purple polish like Orbis Non Sufficit or Mismas.

RBL Locavore on bare nails. 2 coats w/ flash

As with all RBL polishes I own so far, I get a little over a week of wear with this and only minimal tip wear. As I work in IT I type a LOT (over 120wpm) so while I do expect my nail polish to wear at the tips, shattering and sending dangerous shards of nail polish isn’t something that happens with RBL. In other words, no chipping. Cost per bottle is $18 and free domestic shipping is offered for orders over $100 ($200 for international orders) at RescueBeauty.com. Remember, Rescue Beauty Lounge nail polishes are 5-Free and Made in the USA.

So are you totally lemming for this? You should be. But don’t wait too long to purchase as these will only be available as supplies last. Get it while you can at retail while you can because she who hesitates will wind up auction sniping.

By now most of you know of my undying devotion to Rescue Beauty Lounge nail polishes. Yep, I’m a crazy RBL and want everyone to know it. I got into the RBL polish collecting game late so I missed out on two nail polish shades so cool, so amazing, so stunning I was soo dissapointed…until the Vintage BIB voting brought them back.

So for your consideration and evaluation, I present to you, from the Vintage Bring it Back voting, the two ‘Terror Twins’ of RBL, Moxie and Killa Red! :::cue me putting on Don King hair and yelling ‘Only in America’:::

Moxie

Candlelight in a bottle—that is what Moxie is in a nutshell. This is a beautiful white gold frost that I believe would look subtle on warm skintones but on cool skintones like mine it commands attention. On both skin tones your nails look like glowing orbs. Weird, I know but the effect is hella sexy. Moxie is somewhat sheer in one coat, opaque in two coats and richer with three coats. As this is a frost finish there can be some visible ‘brushstrokes’ if you look really close but I usually attribute that to me being impatient and not letting each coat dry completely before adding another one. When I wore this color out I got a lot of compliments—especially from women of color.

RBL Moxie: It is truly candlelight in a bottle.

RBL Moxie. 3 coats. God how I LOVE this color. Glows like an angel.

The only color I have similar to Moxie is NARS Versailles. Versailles has yellow-gold shimmer which doesn’t look all that hot against my cool skintone. It’s even more pronounced next to Moxie and you can see how much more white-gold it is.

From top: RBL Moxie, NARS Versailles, RBL Moxie (w/ flash)

Killa Red

I am usually not a fan of red nail polishes. Not because of the color (I love red) but because of the undertones. With this color, Ji has come up with the best, most awesome, most-kick ass blue-red cream nail polish that trumps even Chinoise (my other favorite blue red). Where Chinoise seems more trendy, Killa Red is ‘grown and sexy’. It also has a rich translucence that borders on gothic. The color is rich and is opaque in one coat, even more stunning with two coats. I would double-up on the top coat simply to further enhance the shine and dimension of this color.

RBL Killa Red: the most perfect blue-red cream

RBL Killa Red. 2 coats. WERK!

End of Line Recommendation

As with all RBL polishes I own so far, I get a little over a week of wear with this and only minimal tip wear. As I work in IT I type a LOT (over 120wpm) so while I do expect my nail polish to wear at the tips, shattering and sending dangerous shards of nail polish isn’t something that happens with RBL. In other words, no chipping. Cost per bottle is $18 and free domestic shipping is offered for orders over $100 ($200 for international orders) at RescueBeauty.com. Remember, Rescue Beauty Lounge nail polishes are 5-Free and Made in the USA. So are you seriously itching to get these? You should. But don’t wait to long as they are only available for a limited time and once the supply is gone, it’s gone until Ji decides it’s time to bring it back.

If you’re a edgy yet classy dame, I’d suggest wearing a Killa Red pedi with a Moxi mani. If you don’t think you fit this bill, check out the video below by one of my favorite music icons, Dame Shirley Bassey. You know she’d rock this combo and rock it hard.